Reviews

Alex Rast: 12-Oct-2005

SCORES

Score/10

Weight

Aroma:

10%

Look/snap:

5%

Taste:

35%

Melt:

5%

Length:

15%

Opinion:

30%

Total/100:

100%

INFO

Best before:

Batch num:

Source:

Supplied by:

A pleasant semi-bittersweet chocolate, well balanced if somewhat mild. Not, perhaps as accomplished as its more powerful sibling 66%, it is nonetheless a very good chocolate and displays an unusual range of flavours. Mysteriously, Amedei seems to have chosen rather passive, reserved beans for this blend so it is overall a retreating chocolate instead of an authoritative one.

Out of the box, the chocolate looks very appealing. It’s got quite a light colour, reddish in cast, revealing good-quality beans, although slight bubbling is noticeable. Aroma is superb, in fact, it’s this chocolate’s best feature. There’s a predominant raspberry tone, along with an earthier cocoa and hints of coffee. It seems as though this may be a blend with beans custom-roasted to different lengths, a processing refinement very, very few manufacturers do. In any case, the aroma is exciting and suggests pleasures to come.

As it is, the flavours don’t quite bear out the aroma’s promise. They’re just a bit too subtle. It starts out with a soft vanilla/almond, then makes its way to watermelon and sweet cherry. An underlying earthiness persists thoroughout and helps to provide a solid foundation, however, one wishes that some more aggressive components would find their way forward. As one might expect, it’s a bit on the sweet side, although by no means overdone. Texture is actually among Amedei’s best, very smooth and super-creamy, so that nothing interferes with a pleasant if passive experience.

By tasting Amedei’s varietals, it’s possible to identify possible components of this chocolate, but, unfortunately, all of them are the quiet, more feminine breeds. This chocolate needs a jolt of something more masculine, and here Amedei has no excuse – they have access to perhaps the most masculine cocoa in the world: Chuao – and this chocolate could really use an injection of it. It’s very pleasant, and that’s all well and good, but rather in the same way as a beautiful but submissive wife: something that keeps you happy but vaguely unsatisfied.

Martin Christy: 2-Feb-2002

SCORES

Score/10

Weight

Aroma:

10%

Look/snap:

5%

Taste:

35%

Melt:

5%

Length:

15%

Opinion:

30%

Total/100:

100%

INFO

Best before:

Batch num:

Source:

Supplied by:

Soft, subtle chocolate with hints of tobacco, lemon, burnt toffee and raisins. An easy, fast melt with the pastiness of a Criollo. Tobacco aroma, with almost a twist of cheese. Mild coffee in the length, which is good with very slight metalling, but not unpleasant. Great looking chocolate, which will be good for those looking for taste without strength.